Testimony in Bethlehem Puerto Rican social club fatal gun battle reaches fifth day

Shajuan Hungerford was standing on the sidewalk near Bethlehem's Puerto Rican social club when she saw a gunman running up the street in her direction, firing behind him as he made his getaway.

A mother of four, Hungerford didn't flee and didn't hide as the shooter headed back to the East Third Street club, stumbling as he was hit by gunfire. Instead, she stepped toward the man and confronted him — a decision captured on video surveillance outside the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society early that morning.

"I was saying, 'I seen you. I seen you,' " Hungerford testified Wednesday in Northampton County Court as the recording played in a darkened courtroom.

"Why did you follow the guy?" First Deputy District Attorney Terence Houck asked the 28-year-old Easton woman.

"I don't know," Hungerford acknowledged.

"Were you concerned he might turn around and shoot you?" Houck pressed.

"Yes," she said.

Hungerford identified the shooter as Rene Figueroa, who is on trial with a co-defendant in a 2012 gun battle that police have labeled one of the Lehigh Valley's worst. Figueroa could face the death penalty if convicted of murdering 23-year-old Yolanda Morales of Bethlehem, who was gunned down in the firefight.

Figueroa and Javier Rivera-Alvarado are charged with a slew of felonies that include attempted murder, aggravated assault and conspiracy in the Dec. 2, 2012, melee, though only Figueroa is accused of homicide. Wednesday marked the fifth day of prosecution testimony.

It was the father of Hungerford's children, Orialis Figueroa, who was firing at Rene Figueroa as he made his way up the street. Orialis Figueroa, who is not related to the defendant, is the prosecution's star witness, with authorities concluding he acted in self-defense in fighting off the defendants.

Hungerford said she was unaware her boyfriend was the cause of Rene Figueroa's flight. She only knew that Rene Figueroa was a gunman, and wanted to be sure that police caught him when they arrived, she said.

That claim was highlighted by Rene Figueroa's defense attorney, Jack McMahon, who underscored that Hungerford couldn't say why the bullets were flying.

"Who he was shooting at, why he was shooting, was he shooting in self-defense, was he shooting to kill someone, you just don't know?" McMahon asked her of Rene Figueroa.

"Correct," Hungerford agreed.

A jury must decide whether Rene Figueroa, 34, and Rivera-Alvarado, 40, both of Allentown, were the aggressors in the shootout. Their lawyers insist they were the victims, with Orialis Figueroa the one who started the melee and whose reckless gunfire killed Morales.

McMahon has mocked Orialis Figueroa to the jury as "our local hero," saying the story that he and his relatives told police is a "total fabrication" that is plagued by inconsistencies.

The shooting occurred after a minor incident in the club spilled into the street, according to testimony. It created a crime scene so complicated that investigators had to draw diagrams to make sense of what happened.

Orialis Figueroa was shot in both legs. His brother, Angel Figueroa, was paralyzed from a bullet. Another relative, Luis Rivera, was shot in the knee. The defendants suffered gunshot wounds of their own, with Rivera-Alvarado also knocked unconscious from a baseball bat blow to the head.

Also Wednesday, the jury heard from several police officers who were called after the shooting. One of them, Jason Holschwander, said he went into the club and saw Rene Figueroa sitting inside, injured though still conscious.

Later, as Holschwander kept an eye on the scene, a man came up to him and recommended he check the bathroom for evidence. He found a silver handgun, covered by paper towels, in a garbage can by the far wall.

Police Sgt. Robert Urban drove with Rene Figueroa by ambulance to St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill. After they arrived, Orialis Figueroa was brought in and put in the same room, Urban said.

"As he was laying in his trauma bed, he looked to his left," Urban said, "and he indicated that Rene Figueroa was one of his shooters."

McMahon noted that Orialis Figueroa didn't disclose to Urban that he had also fired a gun during the shootout, and had hit Rivera-Alvarado across the head with the bat.

Houck countered that Orialis Figueroa and Urban spoke only briefly, and as Orialis was wincing and groaning in pain.